Tips and Tricks: How to Make a Great Omelet in 7 Steps

There surely isn’t one better all-encompassing, loved by all recipe to make an omelet. There are different shapes and sizes of the dish and all kinds of differences in our taste buds. But there is such a thing as a technique which will help you make a great omelet, no matter what your preferences are.

I am one of those people absolutely in love with breakfast food and especially eggs. I believe that breakfast food, like omelets and sunny side up eggs with bacon, should be liberated from the shackles of breakfast or brunch and be served everywhere throughout the day. Eggs are one of my favorite ingredients and probably the one I’ve worked with the most. If you want to learn how to make a better omelet, then we’ve got some tips for you!

7 tips to make a great omelet

1. Don’t double down on ingredients

If you try to make an omelet for more than one person, things get tricky. First of all, you need a bigger pan, because if you try to crowd more servings into one pan, the consistency of the dish will be thrown out of balance. It’s best to make the omelets one at a time, each one with ingredients for one person. This leads to the next point because you should make sure the proportion of the ingredients are just right. You cook it by using the optimal quantities of ingredients for an 8-inch (20 cm) pan or skillet: 2-3 eggs, or 2 eggs and 1 egg white. That is the perfect proportion for a serving of great omelet. Don’t overcrowd the skillet, or your omelet will have monstrous and unwieldy thickness.

An omelet is made for one person. Don’t double the ingredients and overcrowd the pan.

2. Choose an 8-inch pan

Speaking of pans, since you already know that the best way to make an omelet is one serving at a time, for that one perfect portion I mentioned earlier, it’s best to use an 8-inch pan. If you go for bigger, you won’t get better, because the consistency of the dish will be off. Same if you use some sort of a tinier pan: you mess with the precision of the dish.

3. Whisk the eggs properly

I used to crack the eggs into a bowl, whisk them softly with a fork a couple of times and then start cooking them almost immediately. But the chemistry of the egg doesn’t work like that. In order to have a soft and fluffy omelet, you should not be very soft and fluffy with the eggs. Use a whisk or a fork to work the eggs in an up and down but also back and forth motion. And you have to do that until you can no longer see just yellow or just white parts. Do this if you don’t want to end up with an omelet that has egg white or solidified yolk patches.

If you want a soft and fluffy omelet, make sure the eggs are whisked properly.

4. Medium heat

Don’t bring up too much heat on the pan you’re cooking in. A way too heated pan will ruin your eggs because it will overcook the bottom of the omelet and leave the top part way too runny. So, keep the heat on the stove to a medium and you should do just fine.

5. Don’t add any liquids

In my house, I learned that you should add a bit of milk or, if you have none, some water in the whisked egg, for the great omelet to turn out fluffy and tasty. Well, that’s not really useful. It actually makes the texture of the omelet slimier. And who wants something slimy on their plate? Not me, that’s for sure!

For a great omelet, don’t add more liquids than the recipe because it ruins the balance of the dish.

6. Shape the omelet in the pan

It’s good to constantly touch the omelet in the pan so that all the eggs will come into contact with the heat. Use a rubber spatula to create boundaries for the omelet. Push the edges of the eggs slightly to the center. And also shake the pan every now and again to make sure that the omelet doesn’t stick to the bottom of it.

7. Cook fillings separately

Use another pan to pre-cook your fillings, because wetter ingredients like mushrooms or tomatoes can make your omelet too juicy and runny, but not in a good way. Also, don’t use too much filling, because you don’t want it the omelet to fall apart under too much filling weight. The other ingredients are there for texture and a bit more flavor, but there’s no need to overdo it with them.

Ruxandra Grecu

I’m a pop culture nerd who thinks too much about fried bacon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and life, the Universe and everything. I love food and sometimes you can see that on my hips, but I don't care that much about that.
What I do care more about is trying to eat healthier, even though I admit that I like to indulge in my food fantasies. I’m addicted to puns, so forgive me for that when you read my articles. I now know too much about nutrition to be fun to hang out with. So long and thanks for all the fish-based omega-3 fatty acids.